Tipping Point
by the wandering path
Summary: And so, Tamaki set off on another epic journey worthy of making minstrels weep and an army of Bearys salute in honour… Crack Alert


Freshly inspired off a line written by TeaForRevenge in _Of Phobias_:

_Tamaki went back into his sulking corner that was no corner at all._

Summary: And so, Tamaki set off on another epic journey worthy of making minstrels weep and an army of Bearys salute in honour…

* * *

It was a bright and sunny day. The birds were chirping merrily, a sweet offbeat tune serenading nature and anyone who would bother to tune in to their lullaby. Unfortunately, Tamaki could not quite say the same for his current mood, which was bordering on the hysterical and sliding into murderous. Of course, on a side note, a murderous Tamaki is like an angry Bambi, causing as much harm as his stuffed toy, but well, it was purely entertainment for the Hitachiin twins to see Tamaki fumble.

"MOTHER! Those-those horrid doppelgangers! They swapped my _precious_ Commoner's coffee for cough medicine!" Tamaki gesticulated wildly, his face a tad bit greener than it should be.

Kyouya continued typing, his four eyes never leaving the screen of his trusty Pineapple.

Hikaru and Kaoru sniggered ostentatiously.

"Ne, tono, it was dark in the kitchen..."

Kaoru started, grinning maniacally.

"...and it so happened that both were a deep shade of brown..."Hikaru drawled; sporting an equally mischievous grin.

The underlying meaning was there: _Can't help it if you are an idiot, t-o-n-o! Don't blame the innocent._

"It could be worse, right Hikaru?" Kaoru shot his twin a knowing glance.

Hikaru cottoned on quickly, "Yeah, tono, it could have been… pee,"

"That's not all," Kaoru leaned in conspiratorially, "it could have been Beary-pee. Now wouldn't that be frightening, no, tono?"

If Tamaki's face was green a couple of moments ago, it morphed into a shade of downright ashen white now, hands clutching an imaginary ache that swarmed his stomach, cold sweat dotting his forehead. He turned his gaze towards the toy in his pocket warily before letting out a strangled cry.

"Haruhi...help your father!" Tamaki was now on the verge of tears.

Out of the corner of the eye, Haruhi paused in the middle of quadratic equations, the tip of the pencil tapping her chin keenly.

"Hikaru, Kaoru, stop distressing him…"

Hope descended upon Tamaki... His daughter had not forsaken him! His beautiful, wondrous, pure…

"My adorable daughter! How sweet thou-"

Haruhi continued as if Tamaki was invisible. "He's annoying me. I'm studying."

Much like a gazillion previous times, the twins broke into raucous laughter, while Tamaki scooted over to his Wall of Gloom and started moping and growing grossly-shaped mushrooms.

Well, he _would _have produced a new batch of mushrooms should he actually find his corner of doom and Wall of Gloom. Except that said corner is currently occupied by a couch. A couch?

When was there a couch in place of _his_ much abused Wall of Gloom? His Corner of Sorrow? His Ginormous Wild Mushroom (shitake, by the way) Growth Patch?

It was not possible, incredible, out-of-routine! He was supposed to be crouching at that corner! That corner is Tamaki-copyrighted! With Beary as eye-witness!

The corner which was currently inhabited with a couch! One with Ootori Kyouya lounging on the couch comfortably, sipping some red wine, to be exact. Anyone with a sane mind would know not to disturb the Shadow King in his precious moments of quiet reflection…

"MOTHERRRRRRRRRRR! Why have you deprived me from my WALL?"

Tamaki was never that bright, and any warning signals always bounced off his brains anyways.

Kyouya's glasses gleamed, menacingly, evilly, in a manner that promised death by shadow king.

"Eheheheh... Don't wink your eyes like that, Mother, it makes you look like a solar panel…"

Ootori's glasses gleamed once more, a blinding flash light that whitened Tamaki's eyesight for a brief second.

"Eeep. I'll find another spot is all..." Tamaki waved his hands in surrender, attempting to placate the Shadow King. Really, Mother already was intimidating enough without those flashy-flashy things.

Sometimes, Tamaki did find Kyouya a tad over-theatrical. Not that he would ever mouth these thoughts out though. He did not want to be blinded again. Once bitten, twice shy, no?

And so, Tamaki set off on yet another epic journey worthy of making minstrels weep and a whole army of Bearys salute in honour…

In a huge, expansive (pun not intended) world also known as the Third Music Room, there were five Corners originally. One corner is now ruled by a Shadow King whose aura of evil is too great for even the most optimistic to attempt to resist against his occupation since he is equipped with an apparatus not unlike Thor's hammer, capable of producing lightning-blinding flashes. It almost surely invited pain to get on the wrong side that is Ootori Kyouya.

Tamaki clutched Beary tightly and moved on to the next, face still tear-stained.

The first thing that registered was the blinding rays of sunlight that went unfiltered through the gilded windows, channelling waves of heat that glided off his blond locks and warmed the tips of his leather shoes.

Too Bright.

Tamaki silently regretted voting for gilded bay windows to be installed in the Third Music Room. Those windows could surely kill many, many vampires (including Edward Cullen, oh yes…) with that lethal dose of UV rays.

That was a definite no-no for His Corner of Doom and Wall of Gloom. It has to be a dark area suitably dampened by his tears for shitakes to grow, no?

So off he trotted towards the next potential corner, Beary in tow.

Well generally, the next potential corner was all spiffy and dandy, aside from the fact that it was _this_ close to Hani-senpai's cot, in which a blissfully dreaming Hani was occupying. Dark, frightening thoughts of simply awaking the sleeping beast with his cries and mushrooms flittered across Tamaki's eyesight…

…

Oh, that would be a nightmare he definitely did not want to relive.

Automatically, the third corner was struck off a mental list on his mind. An ideal Corner of Doom required enough crying space so the tears can be used to harvest a bountiful supply of shitake mushrooms, and yet not near enough any flashy or sleepy beasts that could potentially threaten his well-being.

Looking mournfully, he moved on to the next corner. His sorrow is already on urgent mode, building up slowly but surely like the pent-up gas caused by the mixing of mentos and coke. The need to unleash this overwhelming grief as soon as possible was making him extremely frantic. Thinking of his need, his steps quickened.

Unfortunately, the corner was never his to begin with, occupied by an innocuous -looking cupboard. Still, Tamaki's desperation was reaching the maximum breaking point and so Tamaki had the brilliant idea of shifting it a little to the left, leaving just enough space for Beary and him and a less-than-ideal patch to grow mushrooms. But then again, he could not be too fussy now could he? His urgent need to mope was priority.

Thus, Tamaki started attempting to shift said white-washed Victorian cupboard. However, the cupboard was filled, and this made it harder to push at, even if he slumped both his and Beary's bodies against its side, the cupboard just would not budge! Hence Tamaki had a sudden brainwave of removing items in said cupboard so it would be a more manageable weight. Before his fingers pried open the cupboard doors though, cackling voices in the form of two poltergeists, the Hated Rivals Hikaru and Kaoru wafted across to his ears.

"Ne, tono, are you reallyyyyyy, really, _really_ sure you want to open the cupboard?"

A glint and a lazy smile stretched across their cheeks.

"Like cross my heart and hope to die desperate?"

Now, if anything, Tamaki was more than desperate. He moved to open the cupboard once more –

"Kaoru, my darling, wasn't it just yesterday we dumped Beelzenef into that cupboard?"

Both twins had the completely innocent and curious face mastered to precision.

"Oh, Hikaru, now didn't Nekozawa-senpai threaten the lives of anyone he caught touching _his _precious?"

Tamaki stilled, his fingers freezing in motion, one of them twitching slightly.

"And isn't Nekozawa on the prowl for his stuffed puppet, _now_?"

Tamaki's lips trembled just a little.

"When we left the room, didn't we see him searching the room 2nd Music Room, with a ferocious face?" Huge eyes widened curiously…

"Ne Kaoru, his face was really splotchy and red wasn't it?"

"And his hands were clenched ever so tightly, like they could…"Kaoru paused, his hands mimicking the action, "…wring the perpetrator's neck…"

Subconsciously, Tamaki's hands flew to his neck protectively.

"Hmm, isn't the 2nd Music Room just next to the 3rd Music Room, now?" Hikaru pondered allowed, a slight grimace in the face.

Then simultaneously, both twins flicked their eyes in Tamaki's direction, an all-too-guileless expression still pasted across their faces. "And what would _he _do when _he sees_ Tono, holding, _rather,_ throwing his beloved Beelzenef onto the floor?"

Tamaki was now quivering like a leaf…

Both twins leaned in conspiratorially, audibly voicing their horrifying thoughts…

"Its epic proportions would rival the 3rd World War!" Well there wasn't a third world war technically, but Tamaki didn't need to know that.

"No, Kaoru-chan, it would be like the apocalypse! The end of the world! The last of the days; the disaster that would wipe every single human off the world!"

"And whose fault would it be?"

And at that exact moment, the Hitachiin's turned their calculated gazes upon a shrivelling Tamaki.

Except that he had already fled, cursing the names of the twins, and silently begging for release from the pent-up angst that was destroying his vision of rainbows and unicorns and cute Haruhi-like daughters…

NOOoooooo. Tamaki cannot allow that blasphemy to happen. It was already horrible that he had no corner to mope, and now his vision, the essence of his being, the seed of his soul was being overwhelmed by such angst, turning him into some gothic-like prince of despair?

He could not allow this to happen.

With reimbued purpose, he strode towards the last corner, mind fully intent on getting rid of all obstructions to fully allow his body to mope and for the angst to be healthily absorbed by the mushrooms.

Nothing could stop him now.

Except that… he realized the corner was currently and diligently occupied by a stoic Mori practising some very dangerous karate chops on a ton of bricks. A vision of his head replacing those bricks popped up, and beads of perspiration dotted his fore head as he saw Mori's hand galvanising into action, gathering strength and releasing it in one sharp and precise chop against his neck…

…

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, hands flying up into the air, eyes tightly shut in a feeble attempt to block out the image.

"Senpai, could you kindly take your noise outside? I have an algebra exam tomorrow and your incoherent screams and petty whining is really annoying."

He opened his eyes just to see the large orbs of Haruhi flashing with irritation and in that same moment, his depression surged twenty-fold at the thought of him being a disappointment and a pest to his dearest daughter.

His very existence was unwanted. The Hitachiins wanted to set him off on a path of no return; Kyouya was being unsympathetic and indifferent as per usual; Hani was _sleeping_; even Mori was too fully absorbed in his martial arts to give a hoot about him.

Most importantly, at that moment, his darling daughter Haruhi hated him. She was so irritated she had come forth from her table to tell him off and shoo him away.

At that precise moment of 1:07pm in the afternoon, Tamaki imploded from the pent-up angst.

Waves of angst and depressed thoughts overwhelmed him, and as the girls started streaming in after lessons, they noticed a new dark presence.

"Welcome, my ladies to the Room of Disappointment. Darkness and despair prevails here, grows here and eats away at everything within this room."

They stopped abruptly, goosebumps forming as a steely cold voice informed them without a hint of happiness.

Tamaki arose from his crouched silhouette on the ground, his hair losing its glimmer and turning a dirty blond, his eyes radiating gloom and a macabre appreciation of the new-found despair.

"Welcome to Hell."

Tamaki had crossed over to the Dark Side.

* * *

Just for the lulz, Tamaki's inherent quirks are worth developing ^^. This might end up as an anthology of random ideas that bounce off my head at random hours.


End file.
